Math Pathway Recommendations by Program of Study or Major

Many students need help to identify an appropriate degree program and remain on track to complete their post-secondary credential. Proactive advising provide meaningful, credible, timely support to students on selecting a program that will meet a student’s academic and career goals and provide support when they become off track in their program. The role of advising with relation to student success cannot be underemphasized.

As a primary point of contact for students on campuses, academic advisors are responsible for developing lasting relationships with students to help them navigate college and graduate. Professional advisors, faculty, and even other students serve as advisors at USG institutions, working to provide accurate, appropriate, and timely information to students as they progress through programs of study. In recent years, changing needs among students and new technology have influenced the role of advisors and highlighted a need for additional skills within the profession.

Among the goals of Complete College Georgia is shortening the time to degree through programs that allow students to earn college credit while still in high school and by awarding credit for prior learning that is verified by appropriate assessment.

15 to Finish is a Complete College Georgia initiative that emphasizes the fact that students need to take 15 (or more) credits per semester to finish degrees “on time.” “On time” means associate degrees are completed in two years and bachelor’s degrees are completed in four years.

Degree completion is important because students with bachelor’s degrees can expect to earn 84% more over a lifetime than students without bachelor’s degrees. Students with “some college, no degree” do not enjoy this advantage and may have incurred substantial educational debt with little or no increased earning power.

Within the USG, it is common for students to transfer out of associate degree institutions prior to completing the requirements for the degree. In some cases, students will be successful in earning bachelor's degrees.

Guided Pathways to Success is an initiative of Complete College America to ensure that students receive guidance to complete degree programs efficiently, without taking excessive courses that will not count toward degrees.

Nationally, and in Georgia, relatively few students who begin college requiring remediation ever complete their degrees.

As part of Complete College Georgia, Georgia aims to change these statistics so that more students who enter in Learning Support are able to complete degrees. Across the nation and within the state of Georgia, dozens of pilot projects show that by transforming the way that we do remediation, we can dramatically increase success rates in collegiate gateway courses and beyond, without compromising the integrity of the content.

Goals and Strategies

The work of Complete College Georgia is focued on increasing the number of undergraduate degrees awarded by USG institutions.

This objective represents the overarching goal for the initiative, and provides the focus for our work. To achieve this goal, institutions have opportunities to approach their work in a manner that is consistent with their student body profile, institutional mission, and internal capacity. By working on specific, high-impact actitivies, institutions can build a stronger foundation for total student success. Complete College Georgia has identified a number of goal areas that have shown promise elsewhere. The list below provides an overview of these and their related strategies.

Institutions can and should have goals and strategies that they develop that differ from this list, and not every campus is expected to work on every one.

Complete College Georgia Goals and Strategies

Overall Goal: Increase in the number of undergraduate degrees awarded by USG institutions

(all strategies and other activities should align to this goal)

Area

Goal

Associated Strategies

Access

Increase Access for underserved and/or priority communities.

Targeted recruitment

Parent & community outreach

Dedicated admissions counselors

Specialized marketing

Partnerships with targeted schoola

Summer access institutes

African American Male Initiative

Go Back, Move Ahead

Latino RAC

Shorten time to degree completion through programs that allow students to earn college credit while still in high school and by awarding credit for prior learning that is verified by appropriate assessment.

Participate in Move on When Ready for high school students.

Award credit based on ACE credit recommendations.

Award credit based on portfolio review.

Sponsor an Early College.

Award credit based on Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate scores/exams.

Award credit based on assessment of prior learning via CLEP or DSST scores.

Persistence & Progression

Increase the likelihood of degree completion by transforming the way that remediation is accomplished.

Enroll most students in need of remediation in gateway collegiate courses in English and mathematics, with corequisite Learning Support.

Ensure that all remediation is targeted toward supporting students in the skills they need to pass the collegiate course.

End the practice of requiring students to withdraw from all collegiate courses when they withdraw from Learning Support courses.

Decrease excess credits earned on the path to getting a degree

Provide program maps that plot the path to a degree and reduce choice through constrained choice. Program maps should define the appropriate mathematics pathway for each major and drive students to complete Area A1 English requirements in the first year and the Area A2 mathematics requirements in the first semester.

Provide academic focus areas or “meta-major” maps for students who have not decided on majors that provide them with courses that are likely to count toward their majors when chosen. Meta-major maps should define the appropriate mathematics pathway for each meta-major and drive students to complete Area A1 English requirements in the first year and the Area A2 mathematics requirements in the first semester.

Create default schedules for students in majors or meta-majors; students cannot register for other courses without permission.

Offer block schedules for students in meta-majors or majors for the first semester or first year.

Require students to select majors or programs of study by the end of the first semester (two-year institutions) or first year (four-year institutions).

Provide students with exposure to majors and careers within the first semester or year of study to facilitate selection of appropriate programs of study or majors.

Establish milestones as part of program maps to facilitate defining when students are “off track.”

Use predictive analytics (EAB, D2L, Oracle, Ellucian, local solutions, or others) to help identify students who are off track and to help students understand their likelihood of success in particular programs.

Use Degree Works to track student progress.

Establish criteria for identifying students who may need special interventions in the semester (e.g., lack of attendance, poor performance on early assignments).

Ensure that students who meet off-track criteria receive timely and targeted advising intervention.

Restructure instructional delivery to support educational excellence and student success.

Promote and support the use of high-impact instructional practices across institution.

Increase participation of underrepresented students in high-impact practices.